Summer camp gets inventive

There's a great CMS summer camp called Camp Invention, which, after all the sports camps, is a welcome change.

I'm pretty excited about it when they send home directions about the Take Apart™ item, basically finding a broken or unusable household appliance or mechanical device to take apart.

Finally. Somebody around here who'll be able to fix the CD player. Or get the toaster to pop all four pieces of bread, not just two. Maybe I could send in my camera, and he can figure out why only the pictures taken at a distance are in focus.

Whatever. I'm just glad somebody's teaching our kids how to dismantle products and put them back together.

Unfortunately, turns out they're just taking apart. Not putting back together, much less fixing the thing. They take it apart, save all their favorite pieces, then hook up with three other kids and pieces, and, you guessed it, invent something.

As much as I'd like to listen to my Adele CD, I can see where making something out of scraps of something else comes in handy. Look at Cinderella and her ball gown. All those mice and birds pulled that dress together using the ugly step-sisters' old sashes and beads - hauling it all up and around an old dress form, using rope as a pulley system, and a shoe as a bucket to hold all the spools of thread. Genius.

And who can forget the pivotal scene in "Apollo 13," when the ground engineers spill duplicates of all the random contents the astronauts have in their spacecraft and announce, "We gotta find a way to make . Let's build a filter." And that lateral thinking on Earth led to the jury-rigging of a new device in space that saved everybody's life. I bet those guys have plenty of toast.

Not to mention "Back to the Future." Doc used a real hodgepodge of items to get Marty McFly back to his family ties. Who would have ever thought a DeLorean, a clock tower, a bolt of lightning and a giant hook would work to create 1.21 gigawatts of power? I guess you never know until you try it.

My son made one of those chain reaction contraptions. Which makes perfect sense. Just think of the chain of events that unfolded for Cinderella, the Apollo crew and the DeLorean. Cinderella got her guy, three astronauts returned to Earth and the DeLorean time machine is now an iconic feature in American film history and pop culture.

Making it all the more astounding that I can't toast bread. Next year I'm sending him to Camp Invention with my toaster. Not so he can figure out how to get the other two pieces to pop - but when he takes it apart, he can get out all those bread crumbs.

Is 3D TV Right for Me?

Is 3D TV Right for Me?

Some people are giant fans of the new 3D TV option that there is on the market today and all the companies are jumping aboard. However, others are concerned that they are just too expensive and they do not want to waste their money on something that is purely for entertainment. Here we will look at some of the things to consider when you are wondering whether or not a 3D TV makes sense for you and your family.

With the invention of 3D movies the world of entertainment became a whole lot more dimensional and realistic. This raised the bar for many people in terms of what they wanted to experience when they engaged in cinematic activities. Regular movies would no longer do because now movies are supposed to reach out and touch you in your seat. This was a wonderful addition and advancement but for some people, it was not such a desirable change.

There has also been the invention of blu ray and 3D blu ray which raised the bar for at-home entertainment. For some people, these advancements have proven to offer a lot in terms of realistic television experience. The invention of 3D TV has added a lot to some people’s lives and helped them to have the whole realistic experience right in their own living rooms. If you love this experience, then a 3D TV may be just the thing you need.

For some people, it does not make sense to get a 3D TV. They do not need to have this realistic experience and would rather appreciate the 3-dimensional experience once in a while at the theatre. This is similar to how you can eat lobster or some other fancy food every so often, but if you eat it every day, it loses its allure. When you have the 3D TV experience, sometimes it can just make the whole process get old a lot faster. After all, life is in three dimensions already. Sometimes two dimensions are rather comforting.

If you are thinking of getting a 3D TV for your family, then it may not be up to you whether or not you want the 3D entertainment experience to be an abundant one or not. Even if you think it is best to enjoy 3D blu ray movies every once in a while or go to the theatre for 3D movies sometimes, your families may want this experience every day. It then becomes a matter of making a decision about what to do and allowing the people in charge at the house to make the final decision.

There are many things to consider in this world that has such rapidly advancing movie technology. Black and white used to be the only option and now we do not even need to stay in two dimensions, never mind two colors. When it comes to whether or not to get 3D TV , the decision can be based on how much magic you want the 3D experience to hold as well as whether or not it is a wise decision given your family’s tendencies towards too much television or not.

Tube, the invention of television

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